Sophomore Shura Ermakov (right) running the 4×400 meter relay last season. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

The Hillsdale women’s track and field team traveled to Grand Valley State University over the weekend for one of the final meets leading up to G-MAC conference championships in two weeks. 

The team successfully increased individual marks for provisional rankings according to the National Track and Field Ranking and Results website. 

“We had several personal records set including one from Shura Ermakov,” senior all-American Liz Wamsley said. 

Senior Shura Ermakov, who ran the open 400 meter dash, set a new personal record of 55.58 seconds and increased her own provisional rankings as a nationals qualifier ranking 20th  in the NCAA DII conference. 

“I think we have a good foundation moving into conference championships based on the past few weekends,” Ermakov said. 

Wamsley ran her first 5k of the indoor season and placed fourth with a time of 16:30.65,  just seconds from her personal record. Her current provisional ranking puts her fourteenth nationally. 

“That meet is always a really intense and competitive environment, so people get really fired up competing there,” Wamsley said. 

“This meet is mostly a chance to improve individual marks going into conference championships and to compete against some really fast people,” Wamsley said. “Conference will be the real test of where we stand as a team.” 

As the Chargers look to G-MAC championships in the next two weeks, they are hosting the annual Hillsdale Tune-Up meet on Saturday, which acts as the last effort to improve individual provisional rankings before the conference championships. 

“This upcoming meet is definitely a step in the right direction as far as getting good seed times for conferences and preparing to be in that really competitive mindset,” Wamsley said. 

In addition to the improvement on individual rankings for many women over the past weekend, the 400 meter relay team placed thirty-sixth in provisional rankings with the prospect to improve this at G-MAC championships. 

“Although it did not go as well as the week before at Ashland, it just gives us a lot of reassurance that we could work on other things,” senior all-american Josee Hackman said. 

The team made up of Ermakov, Hackman, junior Reese Dragovich, and sophomore Francesca Federici remained on the national qualifier list, but ranked lower than in weekends prior. 

“Our provisional ranking did not improve from last weekend but we will run the relay again at conference championships,” Dragovich said. 

As the team focuses on the next two weeks of training in preparation for G-MAC championships, the upcoming weekend meet will provide the opportunity to focus on setting the tone for individual races and expectations. 

“This week was a good indicator of where people are at as we begin to taper for conferences,” Dragovich said. “We will head into conference looking to fine tune and recover well so we’re all ready to roll next week.”